Sunday, September 20, 2009

When you take a look at the weapon-related feats available to any character (using, for example, the handy guide I posted a few days ago), you can notice a great disparity from one weapon group to another. Without taking into account racial or class-specific feats, there are never more than one or two feats per tier for a given kind of weapon. The problem is, many weapon types lack feats in some tier (usually Heroic), or waste these precious feat slots with terrible options.

This is the first on a series of articles that attempts to address the shortage of weapon feats, among other issues. Each article will feature a cycle of feats for every melee weapon type: one cycle for the heroic tier, and two for paragon. These will include existing feats from PHB and PHB2, sometimes with fixes to make them playable or to prevent them from being overpowered. Most of these feats will have no class or race restrictions, with the exception of some game-breaking ones from Martial Power, for which I provide patches.

So, without further introduction, here is the heroic tier cycle, ordered by weapon type. On the table, the feats marked with a '*' are unchanged from the core books, whereas those with a '+' are revisions of existing feats. The rest of them are brand new.

Deadly AxeRequirement:Str 15Benefit:While you wield an axe, if it does not have the high crit property, you treat it as having high crit. Otherwise, critical hits from weapons attacks you make with the axe deal ongoing damage equal to your Str modifier.(Feat updated from PHB version, moved from paragon to heroic tier, reduced requirements and added effect for high crit axes.)

Tripping FlailRequirement: Dex 15Benefit: When you score a critical hit on a melee weapon attack with a flail, you knock the target prone.

Steady HammerRequirement: Con 15Benefit:When you make a weapon attack with a hammer, if the target didn't move during its last turn, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll.

Head CrackerRequirement: Con 13Benefit: When you hit with a weapon attack with a mace, the target gains a -2 penalty to damage rolls until the end of your next turn. Increase the penalty to -3 at level 11th level, and -4 at 21st level.

Piercing PickRequirement: Str 13Benefit: Your weapon attacks with a pick ignore the first 3 points of any resistance possessed by the target. This increases to 6 points at 11th level, and to 9 points at 21st level.

Spear PushRequirement: Str 13, Dex 13Benefit: Whenever you push a foe with a polearm or spear weapon attack, you may add 1 square to the distance pushed.(Feat updated from PHB version, moved from paragon to heroic tier, reduced requirements and limited effect to weapon attacks.)

Polearm MomentumRequirement: Dex 15, Wis 15, FighterBenefit: When you make an encounter or daily weapon attack with a polearm or a spear, if the attack pushes or slides a target, you can also knock that target prone at the end of the forced movement.(Feap updated from MP version, changed trigger condition to prevent exploits with at-wills and opportunity attacks)